Breaking news
Supercars Adelaide
Last-lap failure costs Stanaway top rookie spot
Richie Stanaway was robbed of the top rookie honour from today's opening leg of the Adelaide 500 by a last-lap drivetrain failure.
Andrew van Leeuwen
Edited: Mar 3, 2018, 1:08 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The GP2 race winner was the class of the highly-rated Supercars rookie field throughout the majority of the 250-kay opener, running inside the Top 20 even after being first hit by fellow Kiwi Fabian Coulthard on a Lap 55 restart and then ending up in the wall thanks to a tangle with Todd Hazelwood and James Golding a lap later.
In the end the Tickford Ford driver was undone by a final-lap drivetrain failure, which left him stranded after being on for P18 and best of the rookies on debut.
"We had a drivetrain failure going through the first chicane," he said. "Something had come loose in the drivetrain and it was pretty clunky for the last 20 laps, and then it’s broken finally.
"It’s a shame that it couldn’t have gone for another minute or so. I had no drive at all so I just pulled it up at Turn 4."
Stanaway added that he was perplexed by both the run-in with Coulthard, and then the rookie pile-up on the next lap.
"I thought he actually got hit from behind because I couldn’t see any other reason why he’d be into me so hard," he said.
"He got into my rear pretty hard before he got on the brakes. I don’t know if he’s tried to send me off or something, but then he’s come up the inside with the tyres locked and got into the door.
"I braked deep, because when everyone is tight on the first laps you have to do that to conserve your position, and there was no room to go up the inside.
"Everyone was racing pretty hard. The unfortunate thing was I didn’t want to be aggressive, I just wanted to finish. I wasn’t trying to dive-bomb anyone or be desperate to keep my position, I just wanted to finish, but I had people around me who were in a different mood."
When asked about the incident post-race, Coulthard, who himself endured a difficult opening day of the new season, was dismissive.
"I shouldn't have been back there anyway," he told TV crews.
"Tough day We tried the best we could, but we're just struggling. Poor qualifying puts you back there. Chin up, we'll move on."
Thanks to Stanaway's late retirement the best of the rookies ended up being Anton De Pasquale, a lap down in 19th.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Adelaide 500: Van Gisbergen gives new Holden perfect debut
Next article Whincup slowed by post-crash gremlins
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Andrew van Leeuwen
Toby Price explains 'unfortunate' Mitsubishi split
Dakar
Dakar
Dakar
Toby Price explains 'unfortunate' Mitsubishi split
Supercars parity review begins
Supercars
Supercars
Supercars parity review begins
SRO set for bigger Australian GT presence
GT World Challenge Australia
GT World Challenge Australia
SRO set for bigger Australian GT presence
More from
Richie Stanaway
Stanaway makes PremiAir Nulon switch as 2025 Supercars grid nears completion
Supercars
Supercars
Stanaway makes PremiAir Nulon switch as 2025 Supercars grid nears completion
Stanaway disappointed to miss out on Triple Eight drive
Supercars
Supercars
Bathurst
Stanaway disappointed to miss out on Triple Eight drive
Grove Racing confirms Stanaway signing
Supercars
Supercars
Grove Racing confirms Stanaway signing
Latest news
Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Phoenix
1 h
Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead
GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
6 h
GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend
Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 7 h
Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole
Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
11 h
Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe